Grubby neck

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Hi Guys,

My OLP MM3 has beautiful Maple neck and fret board but it is slightly grey with grubbiness and crud.

I have seen on a few threads that Pledge/Mister Muscle is out and beeswax/specialist polish is very much in.

However I can't help but think that the wax/polish will simply go over the grime and grot and just make the clean wood look great but not actually remove any of the greyish discolouration. So before I treat my bass to a nice wax, what should I do to clean it before the wax/polish is applied?

One thread said lighter fuel works as a grime remover. Is this ok to use? How soft/abrasive should the application cloth/implement be? Anything from a yellow soft furniture polishing cloth, through J-cloths, toothbrushes, non-scratch scourers?

or should I take a warm bowl of soapy washing up liquid to it? (jus' kidding )

[brensabre79]

Assuming it has not been stripped or refinished at some point.
Your OLP maple neck will probably have a lovely coat of Polyurethane (poly) varnish on it.

So beeswax will be useless.
Pledge / Mr Muscle is not good on Nitrocellulose (Nitro) finished necks as it melts the varnish a bit making it sticky. You should be OK with poly though.
Beeswax polish is good on an unfinished neck, but you're right, on a varnished neck it will just add a coat of wax.

If you want to be extra careful you can get a proprietary 'guitar cleaner' from a music store.

Personally I'd just use any multi-surface polish on a poly neck - it's almost impossible to remove chemically.

[icastle]

I've always just used hot soapy water and kitchen roll on mine.

The dirt is mixed with grease, so using a wax based cleaner just moves the crud about and seals it in.

[Thunderbird]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]"If you want to be extra careful you can get a proprietary 'guitar cleaner' from a music store"[/font][/color]

[font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]That is what I do and it is not as expensive as people think bearing in mind you only need a tiny bit at a time but soap and warm water will do the job the only reason I use a special cleaner is that washing liquid can contain salt and that is not great for chrome hardware etc[/color][/font]

[HowieBass]

If it's a poly varnish you could try metal polish on a soft pad... clean the frets at the same time